This invention relates to solar energy collector panels and more particularly to an extruded chemical converter/heat exchanger formed in a spiral or coil configuration.
Many different systems have been designed for useful purposes of solar energy. Heat collector systems have been installed on the roofs of buildings, on the sides of buildings and on the ground. These systems have been constructed in different configurations making use of pipes, panels, etc. U.S. Pat. No. 3,868,945 illustrates a plurality of side-by-side pipes which form parallel flow channels through which water flows back and forth from the inlet to the outlet and upon which the sunlight is incident to heat the water as it flows back-and-forth through the parallel piping. U.S. Pat. No. 3,254,644 illustrates piping in a spiral along a conical-shaped section so that the sunlight strikes the piping at an angle as it flows in a continuous line from an inlet to an outlet. U.S. Pat. No. 4,014,314 illustrates a flat spiral in which fluid enters one end of a tube that extends to the center of the spiral in which the fluid flow continuously through the spiral coil and out through the outlet end on the outermost tube of the spiral. The spiral is held together by radial clamps. These prior art systems are only a few of the different designs used in solar heating of different structures. U.S. Pat. No. 3,972,183 is directed to a solar system for gas dissociation. This patent describes a closed cycle, chemical heat means for effecting energy capture and transport. A small chemical converter is mounted at the focus of a solar collector whose function is to receive the inflow of a chemical working fluid, heat the inflowing fluid by heat from the outflowing fluid, further heat the inflow fluid by the sunlight and dissociate a portion of the inflowing fluid in a catalytic converter chamber, to remove heat from the outflowing fluid, and to deliver the cooled outflowing fluid to external piping which conducts the fluid to its place of use as a heat conversion system.